FUND THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FRONTLINE

We are facing a domestic and family violence crisis, but the specialist frontline services we rely on to keep victim-survivors safe are dangerously underfunded. After years of chronic underinvestment, as demand for their specialist clinical support has steadily increased, frontline services are now at breaking point.

These services provide genuinely critical, irreplaceable and life-saving support to women and children fleeing violence – victim-survivors who are already waiting an average of two months to access support.

In the latest NSW Budget, the Minns Labor government has once again delivered no new investment in existing frontline domestic and family violence services. To make matters worse, Labor has dishonestly attempted to dress up a cash splash for courts and the corrections system as somehow being funding for domestic and family violence victim-survivors.

Enough is enough. The NSW Labor government must deliver what is urgently needed to tackle the gendered violence crisis – a significant and permanent increase in baseline funding for existing frontline domestic and family violence services.

Send an email to the Minns Labor government, demanding they immediately fund the domestic and family violence frontline.

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Dear Minister, 
I am deeply concerned that the NSW Labor Government is continuing to dangerously underfund our frontline domestic and family violence services. While rates of violence have steadily increased in recent years, baseline funding for existing frontline domestic and family violence services has not. Victim-survivors are now waiting an average of two months to access critical support, with some waitlists stretching for months on end. 
Over a year on from the Minns Labor government's ‘emergency funding package’ and promises to listen to calls from experts and the community, it is unacceptable that your government has yet again delivered no new investment in existing frontline domestic and family violence services in the NSW 2025-26 Budget. 
Frontline domestic and family violence services provide genuinely critical, irreplaceable and life-saving support to women and children fleeing violence. These are the services that daily make the difference between life and death. In NSW, we are funding frontline services at less than a third of what Victoria spends, and around two thirds of what Queensland spends on a per capita basis. If the NSW government is serious about saving lives and turning the domestic and family violence crisis around, it must fund these services at the level needed, which means increasing baseline funding by 50% at the minimum. 
Please commit to delivering what is urgently needed – a significant and permanent increase in baseline funding for existing frontline domestic and family violence services. 
For years, Domestic Violence NSW (DVNSW), the peak body for specialist domestic and family violence services in NSW, has repeatedly called for a 50% increase in baseline funding for all existing specialist domestic and family violence services. This is critical to meet demand. The sector also requires targeted investment in specialist services and programs to ensure equitable access, recurrent funding to expand services across the state, and dedicated long-term resources to implement each of the government’s action plans. 
Experts in the domestic and family violence sector have been telling the government exactly what is needed to eliminate violence against women and children for decades. We know what needs to be done, we just need a government willing to prioritise the funding required for it. 
I’m calling on the Minns Labor government to immediately provide a significant uplift in baseline funding for existing frontline domestic and family violence services – so that every person fleeing violence in NSW gets the support they need.

I would like to BCC myself